A. B. Clifton

“ The cathedral as we see it to-day has met with many vicissitudes. Of its misfortunes in the Civil Wars much has already been said; and something of its sufferings at the hands of restorers. At present, after studying the west front and contemplating the extreme newness of its every detail, we can only hope that when age has somewhat staled the infinite variety of its modern ornament, future pilgrims to the shrine of St. Chad will not think too unkindly of an age given over to the rigours of restoration. ”

“ In the most easterly bay but one of this aisle there must have been a doorway leading into the chapel which Dr Stukeley speaks of: "In the chapel over against the lady choir was the burying-place of two Mercian Kings; but it is now chosen for a burying-place by Dr Chandler, present bishop of Lichfield, who has there buried one child."
The Lady Chapel has always most justly been admired by architects and antiquarians. Not only is it peculiarly beautiful in its construction, but also its windows are now filled with some of the most charming old glass to be seen in England. ”

“ The cathedral does not stand on high enough ground for any very fine view of the entire building to be obtained. But from whatever point in the neighbourhood of Lichfield we look we can see its three slender spires, grouping themselves, sometimes so that only two can be distinguished, sometimes so that they all appear in one cluster as though rising from one tower, and sometimes spreading out so that two seem to have very little connection with the third. ”

“ The west front of Lichfield is noted for the richness of its decorations, covered as it is with niches holding images and, it might almost be said, with every available inch covered with decorative work. The whole has a most superb effect, and at a distance, where the poverty of the modern workmanship is not easily discerned, its appearance cannot be very different now to that which it presented at the end of the fourteenth century. ”

“ There is a central pillar, the clustered shafts of which are banded in the centre; the capitals of these shafts have a particularly rich and elaborate carving of foliage; and above, the vaulting ribs spread to the roof like the branches of a tree, producing a very fine effect. The bosses where the ribs intersect are also worthy of attention, and the ribs rise from very richly-carved and deeply-moulded corbels. The windows are Early English, and of two lights each. Below is a very beautiful arcading, similar, indeed, to that in the vestibule, which entirely surrounds the building. ”

“ The windows of the aisles agree well with the other windows of the nave, and have three lights with trefoiled circles in the head, while below the windows is an arcade resting on a bench, the arches of which are surmounted with pediments richly carved. There are six of these arches in each bay, and between the bays rise triple vaulting shafts with carved capitals of leafage; [61] from these spring three ribs running to a central rib on which are beautiful bosses like those in the nave. ”

“ Truly, had he been able to see the result of his fortification, he might have said with the Preacher: "All is vanity and vexation of spirit"; for if there was one thing which brought down on the cathedral the extremities of hatred and violence in the Civil Wars, it was that it proved able to be held as a fortress against those who came up against it.
Bishop Langton built also the palace, which for so long, with its towers and turrets, stood in the north-east corner of the close. ”

“ Bishops and kings and queens had apparently showered their wealth and valuables upon the cathedral; and with the subscriptions of the diocese, known as Chad's Pennies, and the offerings of pilgrims, the riches of the cathedral seem to have been enormous. These "goods," in many cases with their donors' names, are all set out in the roll, which, it is interesting to [10] notice, is dated in the year of the Black Death; possibly the enormous mortality of the time may have made it seem necessary that the mere memory of man should not be depended upon when so few seemed likely to survive. ”

“ The architectural history of the choir and presbytery is very interesting. There is practically no documentary evidence at all to tell when and how it was built; and what we know about it now is due to the antiquarian skill of the late Professor Willis. Nothing can have been more fortunate than that he should have been able to make an inspection of the foundations of the choir, for no man had a greater genius for using the smallest discoveries to the greatest advantage. ”

“ Incompetent as he was as a bishop, the diocese obtained several remarkable benefits during his rule. The king gave Cannock Chase to the see, and the west front of the cathedral was begun. It may well be that in his travels he had acquired a love of beauty he would not have acquired at home, and that we owe to him the conception of this beautiful feature of the cathedral. The money it must have cost, too, could only have been found by one whose princely rank enabled him to obtain money with some ease. ”

“ All five compartments are surmounted with very highly-decorated pediments, the central one being the largest and most magnificent; above it rises a very elaborate pinnacle, ending in a cross. There is an open arcading on each side, extending to the piers of the presbytery. The pediments have each a head in the centre, and between the pediments are angels with ivory trumpets.
The reredos has purposely been kept very low, so that the view of the glass in the Lady Chapel may be intercepted as little as possible. One cannot help feeling that too much was sacrificed to that idea. ”

“ There was a screen between the Lady Chapel and the rest of the cathedral in old days. Stukeley mentions it in his notes. He says: "The partition there betwixt the two choirs is a fine piece of architecture, but demolished also in time of war; and, though the figures are destroyed, and at the foot of the same every cherub defaced, yet it may be perceived to be a fine piece of work; for though it be uniform from top to bottom, yet every capital and pedestall are different works within and without." ”

“ The effect of the windows inside is much enhanced by the lovely quatrefoil ornamentation with which their splays are decorated. In the single window—the east on the south side—where the original tracery remains, it is very beautiful and graceful, and is a good example of the Decorated period; but into the other windows Perpendicular tracery has been introduced.
The vaulting is very much the same as in the nave, but the vaulting shafts divide into seven instead of five ribs. The bosses, as everywhere else in the cathedral, are very deeply and richly carved. ”

“ The organ here referred to, however "deep and sweet," was not considered good enough, for in 1636, according to a deed still preserved in the cathedral, the dean and chapter purchased an organ from Robert Dallam of Covent Garden, which, no doubt, "was the pair of organs valued at £200" destroyed by the Puritans. The organ that Hacket set up was obtained by the subscriptions of ladies; the bishop writes: "An Organ is bespoke at £600 price, to be call'd the Ladies Organ, because none but the honourable and most pious of that sex shall contribute to that sum." ”

“ The friendship of Johnson and Garrick was long and cordial: it is fitting we should see that in their death they were not divided.
In this aisle, which until recently was used as the Dean's Consistory Court, is another monument by Westmacott; this is in memory of Andrew Newton, who was so munificent a friend to his native Lichfield. He founded the institution on the west side of the close for the widows and orphans of clergymen, which he also endowed; and on his death, in 1806, he left a library of books to the cathedral. ”

“ In reading the history of the building of this fabric, we cannot help noticing that even the great Gothic builders could not leave well alone. Then, as now, Fashion was the ruling power. Having a Norman church, they altered it into an Early English one; then they pulled down a good deal of this to get a more Decorated building; and finally they changed the windows in order to give the whole a Perpendicular appearance: side by side with other reasons that actuated them, they did their best to keep their cathedral in the fashion. ”

“ Red stone is warm and mellow in itself, and Lichfield is red with a beautiful soft ruddiness that could hardly be over-matched by the sandstone of any land."
The plan of the cathedral shows a simple cross, with a chapter-house (joined by a vestibule to the choir) on the north side, and a sacristy on the south side. It may also be noticed that the nave and the choir (including the presbytery) have each eight bays or severies, and that if we regard the bay under the central tower as a double one, the two transepts together have eight bays. ”

“ For this old work can never be replaced: it is a sad thought that in every art, the early groping days, when the new medium or the new method is hardly settled, and its limitations but imperfectly understood, produce the great work. ”

“ Here we have the rigid simplicity of the Early English style in the transepts, giving place in the nave to the luxury of the Early Decorated, with its geometrical tracery; while in the Lady Chapel and presbytery we find an example, in some respects unique, of the gorgeousness of the completely evolved Decorated style. ”

“ In 1750 we know that the ancient library outside the north aisle, built by Deans Heywood and Yotton, was removed, and the churchyard levelled; we also know that the roof became very defective, and the rain came in, so that a new roofing was required. Pennant tells us that the dean and chapter were obliged to substitute slates instead of metal, on account of the narrow revenues left to maintain this venerable pile; and after the strictest economy, they were under the necessity of contributing from their own income in order to complete their plan. ”

“ In the south aisle, over the entrance to the sacristy, there is a very charmingly-proportioned gallery which is known as the "minstrel gallery." A gallery of this kind, though not unique, is very rare, but Exeter Cathedral has two—one in the north transept and another in the nave. In this case the arcading has been altered to accommodate this obviously later addition, made probably in the early part of the fifteenth century. Three shafts from the arcade have been left, which support a fan-shaped vaulting, upon which the gallery rests. ”

“ Churches were springing up all over the diocese, with their own clergy, and so, although the church at Lichfield remained the headquarters of the diocese, yet the clergy attached to it were no longer to be responsible for the ministrations of the whole diocese, but were to confine themselves to the estates of the bishop and the cathedral, where they were to dwell under canons or rules. ”

“ The abbey at Herkenrode was founded in 1182, and belonged to the Cistercian Order. It became noted for the miracles performed there; from which reason, no doubt, it acquired great wealth, and increased so much in size that it was almost like a small town. All the nuns were of noble family. A history of the abbey was published in 1744, and a copy was presented to the cathedral library by Sir Brooke Boothby. The book contains a view of the abbey buildings, in the centre of which is seen the church. In the third window of the Lady Chapel is a similar picture of the church. ”

“ The piers are large, and consist of clustered shafts, lozenge-shaped in plan, set on much moulded bases, and having beautifully carved foliated capitals from which spring architrave mouldings of great variety. From the base and up the centre of each pier runs a cluster of three fine columns to capitals, also foliated, at the top of the triforium; from these spring five vaulting ribs, three of which diverge to an ornamental central rib, and two to a small similarly decorated transverse rib. There are finely carved bosses at the intersection of all the various ribs. ”

“ Recently, on the west side, some of the arcading has been opened out to afford access to the new vestry, which has been constructed by roofing in the space between the vestibule and the north transept. On the east side near the cathedral is the entrance to the library, which is the upper storey of the chapter-house building, and is approached by a spiral staircase. At the farther end, on the same side, is the very fine entrance to the chapter-house. This, like the central west doorway and that in the north transept, is double and recessed. ”

“ Some bits of the old walls remain, the north-east bastion in the palace gardens and a turret on a house at the south corner: the "beautiful gates" of Bishop Langton are gone; but in the Vicars' Close at the west of the cathedral are two small irregular courtyards with [34] houses so old that we feel sure that their wooden beams and plaster were there when the Royalists of the neighbourhood housed themselves within the fortified close.
The close is not large, and of course, as Lichfield is a cathedral of the old establishment, there are no monastical buildings, no ruined cloisters. ”

“ As we see by the frontispiece, it is not only thickly covered with arcading and statues, but also it is very much enriched with trefoils, quatrefoils, and cinquefoils, especially in the spaces over the doors in the lowest stage, and in the pediment above the great window. The prevalence of the ball-flower decoration should not escape notice; upon the third stage and the spires it constantly occurs, although it is not encountered in the first and second stages, except in the modern tracery of the west window. ”

“ One cannot help wondering if this extreme severity of restoration is absolutely essential; for if not essential, the vague disappointment might well turn to anger that in days when the art of architecture has become almost non-existent, it should be thought necessary to carry through such wholesale renewal of work, never to be replaced, belonging to the grand days of Gothic building. ”

“ The cathedral at Coventry, so long the sister church of the diocese, and so ruthlessly destroyed by Henry VIII., had also three spires; as had Ripon Minster, but these were of lead, and have since been pulled down.
Of the spires, one rises from the central tower and one surmounts each of the towers which flank the west front. The central spire dates only from the Restoration, the older spire having been entirely destroyed in the Civil Wars. ”

“ Professor Willis says: "The entire height of the severey (or bay) is divided into two nearly equal parts, of which the lower is given to the pier arches, the upper to the clerestory. The window-sills of the latter are high, and there is a passage in front of them immediately above the tablement or string course over the pier arches. This passage, the veritable triforium, pierces the great piers of masonry which sustain the vault. The high sills receive the sloping roof of the side aisles, and have three plain open arches in each severey to air the roof." ”